Harry Potter and the Talisman of Merlin
by mo'o le'le's i'po
Summary: The order has discovered a way to destroy the Dark Lord but the only one who can retrive it has already been contacted by Deatheaters. This summary blows and perhaps the story does too...I don't know, review. Lots of love knots. Some mystery.
1. The Nightmare

Ok, this is my first fan fic so please don't make fun! FYI, none of these characters belong to me.

Harry Potter and the Talisman of Merlin 

Chapter 1

The Nightmare 

_Se hace de, non abhinc quecro dormio Regina Mab._

_Tonight, Queen Mab does not seek rest._

All was silent. All was still, all except for one small orb, dancing at the end of the corridor. It glowed like a single star that was plucked from the night sky by the gods, gloating of its greatness. It swirled and swirled as if trying to put the observer, a young boy with brown hair, big teeth, and big ears who was wearing his striped pajamas and mysteriously found himself in the dark corridor, into a trance. Everything around it turned to haze.

The beaming orb danced itself around the corner of the dark corridor where it alone was the only source of light. The curious boy followed it as it slowly ascended a set of creaky stairs and showed itself to a door with a single ray of yellow light escaping from the bottom. The entranced boy moved himself closer to the lit door. He pressed his ear up to the door to eavesdrop on the mumbling voices he heard beyond it. He heard what sounded like two men conversing, one with a small shaky voice, the other, more dark and sinister. A woman, he thought, then spoke in a mumble, the words, the boy could not make out. So he pressed his ear deeper into the door but then silence filled the room once more.

Suddenly, the orb began darting up and down and across the room as if hoping that if it flew fast enough, it might write it's name in the sky. But it seemed more urgent than that, like it wanted to ward the boy away from the door as soon as possible or it would blow up in his face.

He began to move away from the door to follow the orb's instruction, but it had been to late.

The door swung open and a burst of light from the room flooded the hallway and blinded the boy. He squinted into the bright doorway and saw a person standing in it casting a shadow over him. He opened his eyes all the way so that he might see the identity of what appeared to be the woman and gasped.

"I was wondering how long it would take for your big nose to sniff its way up here, Longbottom," the woman arrogantly said. She had long black hair that was brought messily out of the way, and a dirty face with a few scars on it that once might have been beautiful. She was wearing robes of a dark shade of green with a black hemming that was torn all the way around the edges and had a few small holes in it, looked quite shabby. The look on her face, however, showed a smirk and she looked very proud of herself.

"Y...you stay a…away from m.."

"St... Stay a...a…away from you?" She laughed mockingly, "Stay away from you? Or what, you'll run to you mommy? Ha! By the way," she became very straight faced, "how's she doing?" She began laughing hysterically.

"Y...you shut up about my mother, o...or I'll curse you!"

"With what?" The woman immediately stopped laughing and a tall sinister man with white-blonde hair, cold gray eyes, new looking black dress robes, and a silver cane with a serpent on it made his way past the woman and into the doorway where the terrified boy stood digging furiously through his pajamas for something. "You won't find it," the man said, but the boy continued digging. When he discovered that it was no use stopped and looked up into the man's cold gray eyes.

"Bring him here," the boy jumped and a crackly, high-pitched hiss came from deeper in the illuminated room behind the man and woman.

The man grabbed the boy by the hair and dragged him into the room, the woman closing the door behind them. The room seemed unkept. It had the smell and even the feeling of death throughout it. It contained only a few old dusty tables that were piled on one another in the corner next to a balding man with a silver hand who slightly resembled a mouse. At the far end was a fireplace, and a chair containing one occupant.

The boy was thrown to the hard, cold wooden floor. So many things were running through his head. Terror, he know what would happen to him. It had happened to his parents, and so many before them, it would surely happen to him. Importance, what could he have that they wanted so badly that they had to bring him here to this place. Why didn't they just take it from him in the first place?

The occupant of the chair stirred then began to speak in his high-pitched voice, "Is this the one Lucius?"

"Yes my Lord," the sinister man replied, "he is the one Bellatrix here says was the one with the good-for-nothing boy when the prophecy broke."

"Yes my Lord," the woman excitedly intruded, "this is the one, he's the one that bro…"

"I'm sorry, but was I addressing you Bellatrix? **_I_** didn't think so," the high-pitched voice said in a cold, restraint, angry way before Bellatrix had time to respond then turned to the boy. "What did the prophecy say?"

"I don't know," the boy was holding back tears from draining down his face. He knew if there was one thing that he was going to do, it would be that he wouldn't let himself cry. He promised himself that he wouldn't let them see him cry.

"Don't force us to use the same tactics on you as I had Bellatrix use on your parents!" The boy began shaking and a greedy look grew on Bellatrix's face. 'It was coming, at least now he would be together with his parents all the time. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad,' he thought to himself, "Now what did that prophecy say Longbottom!" The high-pitched voice repeated once more with steadily growing anger.

"I don't know! And even if I did know, I wouldn't tell anyone for the likes of you!" The boy spat out bravely. He now had to collect all that was left of his remaining courage, because he knew it would be coming now. It was the one thing that had ruined many lives and families,. It had ruined his. He could only hope that it wouldn't last long.

"Very well then, _CRUCIO_!" The boy screamed and shriveled up in pain on the floor. Every joint in his body was moving in a different direction. Even parts that weren't joints were moving in strange ways they weren't meant to. He cried in pain and in fear. "Now," the high-pitched voice restated, "what did that prophecy say?"

"I told you," The boy whimpered weakly with his voice growing in anger, "I don't know."

"Then you are of no use to me," the man got up out of his chair and revealed his face. It had a pale complexion and snake like red coloured eyes. He looked as though he may have been the living dead, like he hadn't eaten for months. His robes were as black as the night with designs embroidered all through it and it had the deepest shade of maroon trimming around his sleeves. Around his neck was the most detailed golden medallion of a serpent with a large ruby in the center of it. "_AVADA KED_..."

Everything stood dark and silent once more. As the boy lay curled up on the floor with his eyes closed tight and tears streaming down his face, ten more people barged into the room. By the time they were all able to enter, the man and his minions had vanished with nothing but a loud crack leaving the boy there, but taking the fire with them. Nothing was left but the stacked desks, the chair, and the now unconscious boy on the floor. An older man ran to the side of the boy, grabbed him and shoved something into his hand. He along with the rest of the people disappeared

There was a swirl of colour as the scene smeared. It was another corridor; this one was quite different from the last. There were doors and dimly lit torches lining the cold stonewalls. Something broke the silence. A door slowly began to creak its way open. Behind the door was a circular room filled with blue-flame torches and different doors going all the way around the room, all resembled each other.

One door thrusted itself open and inside was a room with a glowing green light coming out of it. It was from a glowing liquid coming from a jar. There was a red-haired boy sitting frozen next to it who looked as though he had recently been strangled, two unconscious girls, and one who was sitting there also frozen trying to help the red haired boy. There were several other men lying on the floor unconscious whose faces were covered with white masks. Another door swung itself open that led to a dark staircase which led to another room.

This room was the most peculiar of rooms. There was something in the room, a kind of secret. It was a single moment frozen in time.

In the room, was a familiar boy with large teeth and ears. He was standing on the staircase that lead to the lower part of the room with a bloody lip and legs that appeared to be frozen in strange unnatural positions. To the front of him by a few stairs stood another boy with messy, dark brown hair, bright, electric green eyes, and ugly, lightning bolt shaped scar on the right center of his forehead. His expression showed the mess of feelings he must have been going through at that moment, horror, shock, and sadness, as he speculated the scene in the pit below him.

There was an array of colours in every direction. Some people were even glowing in these colours. In the pit, there were a few sets of two or three people between the colours and a few were fallen unconscious on the floor.

Finally spotted, was the scene that the messy haired boy was gasping at. The woman from before stood there with a stick pointing it at a man who was falling past a veil. The veil of death. The scene slowly began to come alive and the man fell all the way behind the deep navy blue veil and did not return. The woman let out a scream of triumph just as another man who was between two rays of light before pointed his stick at here. They began to throw streams of coloured light at each other until the woman finally hit the man who now lay on the floor in pain.

The woman ran up the stairs deflecting all the beams of light that were being thrown at here on her way. The gasping boy who had made his way to the bottom of the staircase through all the chaos, ran after her through the green lit room where the boy who was strangled was now acting as though his oxygen had been cut off for too long, and through the circular room. The door to the exit burst open and the boy had left the room just in time to see the woman get into the lift. He called for a second lift and hammered on a button marked atrium. When the doors opened and he arrived in the beautifully decorated room, all he could hear was the loud consistent laughter of the woman. He walked beyond a stone fountain with a statue of a man and a woman with a centaur and an elf looking up at them in admiration in the middle and saw the woman standing next to a phone booth.

"Did little baby Potter _love_ my dear cousin? Did he _mean_ something to you? You should have just told us the prophecy and that never would have happened," the woman said in a mocking baby voice but then became firm, "Now, if you'll just tell me what that prophecy said…"

"**_NEVER_**!" The boy cut her off.

"Then we will just kill off your friends slowly and painfully, one by one, until you have," her voice became very cold and dark. The boy grasped his forehead in pain and let out a wince. His head felt as though someone had taken an axe and with it split his head. The scene tore. The boy and the woman still stood there in their places, but now they appeared to be in a dungeon with nothing but a few barred windows at the top of the stone walls with the moonlight coming in to light it, and there was now a new person standing in the room.

"Why did nobody finish the boy!" The tall man with snake-like red eyes and a high-pitched hissing voice yelled angrily. "And why are you here interrogating the boy in his dreams when that is my job and when I asked you to go find and retrieve something?" The boy winced in pain once more as the axe went for another dive. The tall man was becoming more and more angry by the second and showed no sign of ceasing.

"I…my Lord…" the woman began

"_CRUCIO_!" The woman screamed in pain, "Next time you will not disobey me. Now go!" The woman got up holding her side and disappeared with a loud crack. "As for you," the man turned to the boy and slowly closed into the corner where he was curled up with his knees to his chest, "tell me," he said calmly, "what did the prophecy say?"

"I don't know," was the simple answer of the boy.

"Don't you for one second try to make me believe that that you don't know what that prophecy said _when you were standing right next to it when it broke!_" The man was angry and he had no problem showing it.

"It was too loud, I couldn't hear it," the key was to be calm, calmness in front of an angry person was bound to anger him more.

"DON'T LIE!"

"I didn't hear it!"

"_Even if you didn't hear it, don't you dare lead me to thinking that that crackpot old fool didn't tell you the second he got you alone_!"

"Even if I did know the prophecy I wouldn't tell you!"

"Then I have just one last thing to say to you," the man's anger died down to a smirk and his eyes glared with evil thoughts, "sweet dreams, for these will be your last."

The man began to laugh hysterically and the cold stonewalls began to pulse. The torches went out and the only light source left available was the moon that became a haze through the barred window. The ceiling was gone and the floor was shaking. The hazy moon began to swirl and dance like the orb. It spun faster and faster and faster and faster in the echoing laughter of the snake-like man. The pulsing of the walls was more thrusting than ever. Suddenly, everything stopped. It seemed like the boy was sitting on the cold floor so long just hearing the silence and being able to see nothing. Then, suddenly, before an eye could have had enough time to blink, the floor dropped from beneath the boy and the walls and the sky seemed to follow in its lead. The echoing laughter was as loud as ever despite the disappearance of the walls. The moon was spinning furiously above his head. Finally, as though he had been falling forever, he hit the soft ground and miles away from the world of Queen Mab, a startled boy with messy hair and bright green eyes bolted out of his sleeping trance grasping his forehead after hearing a scream, failing to notice the angry man in his doorway.


	2. The Box

Chapter 2

The Box

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER BOY?" Uncle Vernon began yelling through the doorway when he saw dead mice ripped into pieces all over the floor, "You keep that _ruddy_ bird's digested rodents off that floor and out of view if you plan on keeping it!" Just then, Harry realized that his horse-like aunt was lying unconscious in the doorway. Then with a hint of disgust that he was even thinking about it, Uncle Vernon said, "And when's the last time you wrote to those…_people_?" With that, He picked up Aunt Petunia and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Happy birthday," Harry mumbled to himself under his breath. Sixteen, that's only one more year until he was of age and here he was, in his room, by himself, barred from the rest of his world, and still, nobody would tell him what was going on. It had been like this all summer. Just like last year. He could only look to the _Daily Prophet_, which Harry found to be quite an unreliable source (it really likes to stretch the truth), and the regular muggle (non-magic folk) news. But all in all from what Harry could tell, Voldemort was keeping quiet. Too, quiet for someone that had recently been announced alive by the _Daily Prophet_.

Harry wasn't like normal boys. Up until about five years ago, he had never actually looked forward to his birthdays; in fact, he almost dreaded them. It was just another excuse for the Dursleys to forget him. He hated the summer holidays, and couldn't wait to go back to school. But out of all the unusual things about Harry, the most unusual by far was the fact that he was a wizard.

After last year's events in the Department of Mysteries and the output of the conspiracy of Cornelius Fudge's (the minister of magic) cover up for Voldemort, he decided to step down, not that the committee had any problems with that (if he wouldn't have stepped down they would have given him the boot anyways). The _Daily Prophet_ has been going crazy all month about it and putting out possible candidates. Kingsley Shaklebot, Albus Dumbledore, Percy Weasley, Doloris Umbridge, Minerva McGonagall, Penelope Clearwater, Fred Weasley, George Weasley (who were obviously in it for the pure fact of being in it and to see the outcome, spiting Percy all the way, basically just making sure they got more votes than him) Nephadora Tonks, and to Harry's surprise Lucius Malfoy were the candidates listed, but there were many more. Harry figured that after the fact that Lucius was in prison at the moment nobody would vote for him, but then again, there are a lot of death eaters still out there and they all know the imperious curse.

Harry felt a pecking on his hand and figuring that it had just been Hedwig, Harry's snowy white owl which had been a gift from Hagrid, the grounds keeper at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, for his eleventh birthday, with another message making sure that everything was going okay, ignored it and looked around at his room. He still had loads of homework to do- which was stashed under the floorboards because even if the Dursleys had to be nice, doesn't mean that they can't not allow him to practice or study magic inside the house- because he hadn't even touched it over the summer so far. He had spent most of his time looking at pictures of his parents and awaiting the order's visit to retrieve him from this place. His walls were fairly plain despite a few pictures Dobby the house elf had drawn for him and a Gryffindor flag from Hogwarts. He was so bored that he would have given anything from a visit from anyone from the magical world, even Professor Snape giving him more homework sounded good 'Ten points from Gryffindor because Potter just inhaled oxygen,' or how about Draco Malfoy, he'd probably faint when he saw his room. 'Your room- if that's what you want to call this… _place_- looks like the owlery at our house Potter. Smells like it too, or is that just the smell of muggles. That filthy mudblood friend of yours has a similar scent.'

When Harry turned his head to take the letter from Hedwig so that she would stop pecking at his hand, he found five or six owls sitting next to him and one which he knew to be Pigwedgeon, or Pig, his best friend Ron's owl which Sirius Black, the former most wanted criminal in the wizarding world and Harry's godfather who had died just before summer, had given him, flying uncontrollably in circles above his head and had begun to make an annoying twittering noise. It really is amazing how such a small animal can make such a loud, deafening noise.

Harry removed the letters from the owls and was just about to open the package from Pig when Uncle Vernon opened the door with the most startled look on his face, probably from all the owls that seemed to be everywhere at once in the room and most particularly Pig who had just landed on his head. He shooed Pig away then just stood there for awhile, but when Harry didn't notice his presence, he cleared his throat then began rather nervously, "Hem…err…um, I…err just wanted to tell you uh… happy birthday and uh… that breakfast is ready." He acted like he had a gun pointed at his back. When Harry didn't respond, Uncle Vernon began again, "I mean if you don't want to that's…"

"No, thanks, I mean," Harry wasn't sure what to say. He knew that there had to be a catch, "I'll be right down." Harry forced a smile and Uncle Vernon nodded his head and left. Harry was still in shock that the Dursleys had not only remembered his birthday for the first time in sixteen years, but couldn't believe that they had prepared a special breakfast for him. 'What's gotten into them,' he wondered, 'Maybe the talk they got at the end of the term finally got through to them.' Then he laughed to himself.

Harry reluctantly put the package that he had gotten from Ron down and figured this way he'll have something to look forward to after breakfast, then turned to go down into the kitchen.

When he arrived, he felt that he had arrived much too soon and wanted to turn around and return to the letters and packages inside his room. Aunt Petunia was finishing the bacon, and appeared to still not have gotten over the shock from earlier, when he entered the kitchen, which had a birthday banner up across the yard door. Dudley, who seemed to be sneeking into the kitchens atSmeltings again,was eying the cake greedily and it looked as though he had already gotten a swipe of it with his fat finger. The cake even had a big smudge where Uncle Vernon, who was reading the paper, probably had smacked his hand, and unless Harry's eyes were deceiving him, he was pretty sure that there was a small pile of gifts in the corner of the room.

"Right on time dear, I've just finished the bacon," Aunt Petunia said all this with some sort of scared forced smile. Something was wrong, "Oh, and happy birthday," she seemed a bit too nice.

Harry returned a forced smile to Aunt Petunia and sat down at the table across from Dudley. He also seemed quite nervous now that Harry looked at it. He wasn't even watching the television as usual. He just began looking nervously from Harry, to the door, to the fireplace, to the window, to the cake, and back to Harry again. Uncle Vernon just kept his eyes on the newspaper, in fact, Harry wasn't even sure if he was even actually reading the newspaper. His eyes looked like they were more trying to read through the newspaper and only blinked every so often.

He put the paper down when Aunt Petunia came over with the bacon and poured the orange juice into his glass. She sat down next to Harry and quietly began to eat. Everybody else followed her suite.

The entire meal, which tasted particularly good today, had gone quite uneventfully, nobody saying anything or moving oddly with the exception of the occasional glance at Harry, the fireplace, the door, the window, or the cake from Dudley. It's true what they say, silence is deafening. It continued this way up to the point where Uncle Vernon asked Harry if he was going to open his gifts.

Harry who was just finishing his orange juice spat it out across the table into Dudley's face, who reacted by throwing his own in Harry's face, out of shock. Uncle Vernon gave Dudley a mean stare and Dudley looked as though Harry was going to whip out his wand and start throwing the cruticus curse at him until he became mentally incapacitated, not like he knew what that was anyways.

"Excuse me?" Harry said turning away from Dudley's scared face.

"Your presents dear, are you going to open them?" Aunt Petunia said as sweetly as possible.

"Uh… I guess," if this was going to be some sort of cruel joke, Harry thought, he might as well just get it over with now or they would just do it later, that or have more time to come up with a better one.

Uncle Vernon came over with the four presents that were in the corner. Harry began opening a smaller one with caution looking at all of the Dursley's faces for a hint of laughter. None came. When he got all the paper off, he opened the box and took the note that was on top.

I noticed that you haven't been wearing yours and thought you might like a new one.

Love,

Aunt Petunia

What had he not been wearing long enough for Aunt Petunia to notice, Harry wondered. He turned the box upside down and slid another box into his hands. When he turned the ox around, he saw a quite expensive looking black leather watch.

"Wow, this is really nice, thank you Aunt Petunia!" She nodded her head in acknowledge meant and then returned to the nervous glances which she had joined Dudley in, this time adding Uncle Vernon into the sequence. Harry was quite surprised with the watch and was still waiting for the Dursleys to turn around and say, "Oops, that one was for little Dudders diddycan," rip the watch out of his hands and throw a toothpick at him saying, "That one's yours," then begin laughing hysterically.

He turned his attention to his new watch and began rotating it in every different direction to get a better view of it. It lit up in the dark when you pushed a button, had an alarm, a calendar, and was even waterproof. That's one thing he wouldn't have to worry about now, after all, that's how he ruined the last one two years ago during the second task of the triwizard tournament.

Harry had completely forgotten that he still had other presents to open until Uncle Vernon intruded on his excitement and handed Harry the present from himself.

Harry reached down into the bag and pulled out an envelope. He opened it up and inside was a letter and a twenty-pound note.

Didn't really know what to get for you for your birthday, so I figured you could just buy something for yourself at that one place you like to go for your school stuff.

Happy birthday.

From

Uncle Vernon

If there had been one thing that Harry didn't expect from the Dursleys, that was it. They had never, not once in his life, given him money for spending, non the less to use in Diagon Alley, "Thanks, um… yeah, thanks."

Next up was Dudley's present. Harry opened up the heavy box and dropped a small golden ball into his hands.

"A golden snitch! Wow, but how did you get a hold on one of these?" Harry was in awe.

"Your friend Hermy, or something like that, called one day when you were out for one of your walks. I asked her what I could get for you and she said that you might like one of these stichy thingys." Dudley seemed pleased that Harry liked his gift so much and tensed down a bit.

"Yeah, but how did you get a hold of one, you'd of had to go to Diagon Alley or something?

"Your friend said that she'd order it for me through the mail and I could pay for it when it arrived."

"Well thanks, its great." Harry began letting the snitch fly around and catching it just in the nick of time before it got away like his father did down by the lake in Snape's memory. Then Uncle Vernon cautiously placed the fourth package in front of him.

Harry was very curious of who this one was from because anyone else that would have given him a present would have sent it by owl.

So Harry put the golden snitch in his pocket making sure that it could not get away and slowly unwrapped the last package. He opened the box and took the note located on the top and read:

I found this in the attic. It belonged to your mother. I hope you like it.

Love,

Aunt Petunia

Harry felt tears welding up in his eyes as he pulled the item out of the box. He had never known a lot about his mother. He had known all of his father's friends, he had his father's possessions, and he looked just like him. The only thing he had ever had of his mothers was her eyes. He pulled out a small forest green box with gold jewels that made twisting flowery designs all around the edges of it. He opened it up and it began to play a song that seemed all to familiar to him. He felt a tear roll down his cheek and watched it fall into the box through the mirror on the lid. He watched a magical universe come to life and spin for what seemed like hours until he noticed that he wasn't the only on crying.

Aunt Petunia got up out of her chair with tears in her eyes. She walked over to Harry and gave him a warm soothing hug filled with love. He finally understood her. She really did miss her and acted the way she did with hope that she could forget and the pain would go away. Instead, it just built up inside of her. Now she was free.

Uncle Vernon, who the entire time had been sitting in his chair in shock, suddenly got up breaking the silence and announced that he was going to go catch the end of the morning news. At hearing this, Dudley jumped out of his chair faster that Harry had seen him move in years, beginning the race to the remote and won. Aunt Petunia jumped and immediately began picking up the dished from the table to begin washing. Harry gathered all his gifts and left to go open the packages that he had nearly forgotten about in his room, saying a whole-hearted thank you on his exit.

Harry walked up to his room refusing to believe that this just might have been the best birthday of his life and it was spent with the Dursleys. He opened his door and closed it behind him, put his things on the bed, and sat down between them and his unopened ones, which were about to be among the opened.

He grabbed the one, which had been from pig that he had already begun opening earlier and read the note. But it wasn't from Ron, it was from someone with really beautiful handwriting.

Dear Harry,

I just wanted to thank you for everything that you've done for me over the years, especially last year. I also wanted to tell you sorry about Sirius. I know he meant a lot to you and I have to admit he was kinda growing on me, too.

I can't wait to see you again, we always have so much fun together- even if it is life threatening. That's what makes it so thrilling, isn't it, funny.

See you soon and Happy Birthday!

With Love,

Ginerva Weasley

P.S. I hope you still plan on keeping the D.A. together because it was really fun and you helped a lot of people.

Ginny? She hadn't written to him since second year when she sent him that really embarrassing Valentine through Lockhart's singing house elves. He did agree with her though, they had been getting very close in the past year or so, and they had been having a lot of fun, and to be completely honest with himself, Harry had to admit that she had blossomed very beautifully.

She had beautiful locks of long red hair; he could stair into her deep brown eyes forever. Whenever she smiles, she lit up the whole room and made it smile along with her. Every single freckle that was on her beautiful, straight nose seemed to point out another beautiful thing about her. But this was Ron's little sister, it would never be allowed, and anyways, Ginny had always been infatuated with Harry, so he figured it was just her giving it one last try.

Harry set aside the letter with care and grabbed the next package and read:

Dear Harry,

I hope you like the present Dudley gave you because if you didn't it was my idea. I called up your house and he answered your phone and asked me what he could get you. At least he was thoughtful enough to get you a gift.

I hope your holidays have been going well so far. It sounds like the Dursley's have left you alone anyways. That's a plus isn't it. Mine have been going great. My parents took me on vacation to Italy and I got some really great information on Morgana and Circe. Sailors used to come to her island for potions and whenever a man came along and rejected her love, she would turn them into animals. Isn't that fascinating! I only wish that I had an essay to put it in.

Well, we'll talk when I see you, and just so you know, I don't know anything more of what's been going on than you because I'm still staying with my parents. After all, I hardly ever see them anymore and they insist I spend more time with them after my life collided with a close call last term.

Happy birthday! Hope to see you soon.

Love,

Hermoine

Harry opened up the package from Hermoine and saw the book, _A Guide to Defensive Spells and Enchantments: How to Break Them, How to Use Them_ by Myrddin. It seemed as though Hermoine wanted Harry to continue with the D.A. as well. Maybe he would, it was fun.

Harry grabbed another package and read the note.

Dear Harry,

Sorry I'm not sending this with Pig, because someone who shall remain nameless (cough… Ginny… cough) stole him the other day and he hasn't returned yet. She at least could have asked permission, he is after all mine.

Anyways, Dad will becoming to get you sometime on the day of your birthday, but he won't allow me to say what time incase this is intercepted, but you know the protocol. Anyways, I just hope this gets to you on time because I don't know if your Aunt and Uncle will tell you or not. They're probably hoping that he'll forget, but don't worry, I'll make sure that he doesn't. But like I said, your Aunt and Uncle know already because Dad called them on the ?telyfone, so there's a good chance they probably already told you.

I'll see you later. Happy Birthday, mate!

-Ron

Harry ripped away the paper and found a box of Skiving Snackboxes, which included Puking Pastilles, Bloodboil Surprise, Fainting Fancies, and Nosebleed Nougat from the Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. Now he had a way to get out of potions every now and then. He looked at another box, which was wrapped individually and read the note.

Just in case.

-Fred and George

He unwrapped it and found a portable swamp. He just laughed and put it aside with the rest of the gifts thinking that he might set it up in front of Snape's classroom just incase he doesn't buy the Skiving Snackboxes. Then again, who knows who the next Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher will be. Hopefully the ministry didn't manage to get that horrid Umbridge woman back; otherwise Harry just might have to pull a Weasley.

Harry opened the rest of his gifts. He got a journal from Lupin with a page filled out telling Harry about how it had helped him through the hard times when he was young because he had shared it with his best friends so they always knew what each other were thinking and feeling. Lupin also gave Harry a book called _A Creature Like Me: The Tale of a Werewolf_ by Remus Lupin.

"Wow, I didn't know Lupin was writing a book," Harry said to himself as he pulled up a gift that had been from Dobby. Socks, ugly vomit coloured socks, that were obviously hand knitted because they were two completely different sizes, but you could at least tell that they were socks. It's the thought that counts.

Harry set the disgusting socks aside and picked up his Hogwarts letter.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I am pleased to inform yo that you have been chosen as the new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain as you are the oldest and most experienced player of the team. Good Luck.

The Hogwarts Express will be leaving from Platform 9 ¾ in King's Cross Station London on September the first at eleven o'clock.

We await your arrival.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Head Mistress

"Quidditch captain, WOW!" Harry was so excited as he looked at his new badge. "Hopefully Wood's curse has worn off!" Harry set his badge on his bedside table and pulled up his last package. The note was simple.

Happy Birthday! See ya at Hogwarts.

-Hagrid & Guampy

Harry opened the sloppily wrapped package and saw a beautiful hand carved wooden figurine of snuffles, Sirius in his animagus form. Harry felt tears welting up for the second time that day just as another owl flew through his window carrying a small package.

He took the package off the owl and read the quickly scribbled note on the outside.

Don't open this. Just pack your things. –A.W.

Of course, Harry was having so much fun opening his gifts that he had forgotten that Arthur Weasley would be coming at any given time and quickly grabbed his trunk and threw his things in it.

He was picking up his mother's music box to wrap it in the socks from Dobby when it opened up and began playing its song once more. Harry went to close it, but the mirror fell down and a folded piece of parchment fell out. He looked at the aged paper bewildered as he unfolded it in his lap.

It was a piece of music that seemed to go along with the music coming out of the box. There were even lyrics on the paper with the initials 'L.E.' written on the top. Harry began reading:

_When I'm on my own,_

_Far away from home,_

But there was a loud crack from downstairs and a thundering noise came up the staircase and across the hallway outside Harry's door, then the sound of a door slamming which Harry identified as Dudley's door. That's what he did whenever he was upset, except the thundering staircase was more like the footsteps from the giant from _Jack and the Beanstalk_. There were more footsteps from the hallway and a knocking on the door.

Quickly, Harry folded the yellow paper back up and slid it into his back pocket. Uncle Vernon opened the door and spoke nervously, "_Arathur Weasily_ is here for you," he obviously didn't care to even attempt to pronounce the name properly. Not that it was a hard name to say. Uncle Vernon just had this way of being able to be mean, no matter what. He could be extremely happy, sad, or like he was now, nervous, and still manage to throw out rude comments about people. That's just the way he was.

"I'll be right down, I'm almost finished packing," Harry replied.

"There's no need for that, I'm already here," Mr. Weasley said appearing next to Uncle Vernon followed by Aunt Petunia. "Do you have that box I sent you?"

"Yeah," and Harry grabbed it from his trunk.

"Good, then you finish up your packing and say good bye to your Aunt and Uncle, and we'll be leaving in about fifteen minutes, the present is the portkey." Harry wrapped the box in the socks and put it into the trunk then grabbed his captain's badge from the bedside table and his books from beneath the floor beards.

Mr. Weasley in the mean while was questioning Uncle Vernon on how each button on the television remote worked. Unfortunately, he was doing the questioning in Dudley's room who in the end ran across the hallway screaming and locked himself in the bathroom.

After a few minutes, Harry walked into the hallway and knocked on the bathroom door on Dudley who refused to answer.

"Bye, Dudley. Thanks again, the snitch was really great. I'll owl you sometime okay," but all he heard was Dudley's whimpering. Harry walked into Dudley's room where he could still hear the questioning about the television from Mr. Weasley and saw Uncle Vernon's fat reddened face.

"Are you ready, Harry?" Mr. Weasley turned his attention to Harry when he noticed that he had entered the extraordinary room.

"Yea. Bye, Aunt Petunia. Bye, Uncle Vernon." Uncle Vernon just nodded his head obviously still furious at Mr. Weasley, and Aunt Petunia raised her long hand to wave and moved her mouth, but no words came out. Her eyes became wet and Harry went over and gave her a hug, which she gratefully returned. She wasn't ready to lose him as she had lost her Lily, but finally, she let go when Mr. Weasley reminded them that they had to hurry. Harry rushed out of Dudley's messy crowded room.

Aunt Petunia followed Harry and Mr. Weasley into Harry's small empty room. Harry grabbed his trunk and the portkey, and Mr. Weasley grabbed Hedwig and the other end of the trunk.

Before the portkey took them to the Burrow, Aunt Petunia said, "Try to keep in touch," she now had a tear coming down her bony cheek.

"I will," were the only words that made it out of Harry's mouth before the portkey began spinning and he, Hedwig, and Mr. Weasley disappeared.


	3. Kisses, Tears, and Fears

Chapter 3

Kisses, Tears, and Fears

The scenery spun. Harry and Mr. Weasley were sucked away through the portkey. When everything stopped, Harry found himself sitting on the ground next to Mr. Weasley who had somehow managed to stay standing, outside of the enchanted Burrow.

"Are you okay?" Mr. Weasley was helping Harry off the ground and then picked up Hedwig who was twittering angrily in her cage, off the ground.

"Yea, I'm fine," Harry was now dusting off his pants and then straightened his shirt.

"Good, then let's hurry up and get into the house. I believe Molly was cooking lunch when I left. We can help get the dishes out. That is assuming of course that she hasn't gotten those boys to do it already." Mr. Weasley chuckled and grabbed the other end of Harry's trunk and began a fast paced walk up to the Burrow.

"Smells delicious, Molly!" Mr. Weasley and Harry walked into the house, which smelt like corned beef. Harry looked around the kitchen and saw that the table had already been beautifully set, and Mrs. Weasley was just putting some salad on the table. "Are the boys home yet?"

"No," and then she approached Harry and embraced him in her arms the way a mother would, "Oh, Harry, it's so good to see you again! Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes. The bous should be home by then, too. Ginny will help you take your trunk up to Ron's room. Ginny dear!"

"Coming, Mum!" Ginny called from up the stairs and came to the kitchen answering her mother's call. "Yeah? Oh, hello Harry."

"Hi," Harry responded and Ginny blushed and smiled.

"Ginny, could you help Harry bring his trunk up to Ron's room?"

"Sure," and she picked up one end of Harry's trunk.

"Thank you," Harry said to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley as he picked up the other end of the trunk and Hedwig.

Harry followed he beautiful red haired girl up the stairs. Her hair gently waved back and fourth as she walked past the second landing then began to speak.

"So have you thought about what I said at all?" Ginny's cheeks turned to a soft shade of pink.

"Huh? Oh, wait, about what?" Harry was so entranced with her shiny hair that he had barely taken in a word that she had said.

"Have you considered about keeping the D.A. meetings going?"

"Oh yeah, I mean, well, I was thinking about it, and it sounds like Hermoine thinks that it is a good idea as well, but maybe not."

"So, are you and Hermoine and item now?"

"NO! I, what I meant to say was, why would you think that, we're just good friends," Ginny's face now turned a violent shade of red and Harry's matched. When they realized this, they both began laughing, "She just sent me a book on defensive spells, that's all."

"Well, you should keep it going. It was really a lot of fun, and you helped a lot of people, like me," she made an uncomfortable pause that Harry really wished that she wouldn't have made. She noticed and quickly finished, "and did you see how much you helped Neville? He kicked butt when we went to the Department of Mysteries," she seemed very uncomfortable, so Harry took over as they entered Ron's bright orange room on the fifth landing and put down the trunk.

"In the end though, it would really just depend on my work load and how much interest there is, after all, we might get a decent defense against the dark arts teacher this year, who knows."

"Well, I'd just like to say that you're the most _decent_ teacher I know, and I'm _very_ interested," Harry raised his eyebrows and blushed. Ginny moved in closer and smiled.

"Have you considered what Ron might say if he walked in on this, after all, this is his room," Harry liked her, but Ron never took very lightly to any of Ginny's previous boyfriends. He didn't want to lose his best friend over a girl, Even if it was Ginny.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I have, and I've decided that I don't really care. I can date whomever, whenever, wherever I wish, and he should just keep his big nose out of it. What I do in my personal life is my business and he should butt out. I don't judge him on matters concerning his personal life. I understand that he's my older brother, but there's a big difference between over reacting and being over protective."

Okay, I get that, but he's my best friend, and you know how he is. I don't want to throw away our friend ship. We should at least give him the idea slowly, or make him think that it's his idea, or something."

"Listen, Ron's not due home for at least another five minutes and should he come home early, we would be able to hear him coming up the stairs. And anyways, I guess you're Quidditch Captain this year and I really need to tryout for chaser," Ginny just began giggling and blushing at this.

Harry was left speechless. He had never known Giny to be so outspoken. He wanted to kiss her, sure, but in the right setting. They were alone, yet he still felt as though he was being watched. For some reason, he felt as though it would have been much better if they were being watched and felt as though they weren't.

"Look, I'm really sorry, Harry. I understand If you don't feel the same way about me as I feel about you. I just really wanted to tell you, though I probably was a little too forward. I was just so nervous, but like I said, I'm sorry, and at least you know, and now I know," Ginny turned and went out the door and down the stairs.

"Wait!" Harry ran out the door after her. He finally caught up and jumped in front of her on the fourth landing. He just looked her in the eyes and kissed her. Ginny stopped, closed her eyes and kissed him back.

They stood there in a universe parted from the world where all the stars in the heavens orbited around them. There was no longer even a floor beneath their feet; they were simply floating.

Harry let go of her and gazed into her beautiful brown eyes before beginning again, "I'm sorry, I just didn't know what to say, but I do…"

Harry was cut off from a distant shouting from down the stairs, "Dinner's on!"

Ginny blushed and kissed Harry on the cheek. She ran down the stairs into the kitchen followed closely by Harry.

Ron, Fred, and George were helping Mrs. Weasley put the rest of the food on the table when they noticed Harry enter the kitchen.

"Hey, mate!" Ron was the first to greet him.

"Ah… Harry, how wonderful it is to see you again," Fred intruded before Harry could answer back to Ron.

"Yes, you really should keep in touch you know," George came and stood next to him.

Fred came to his other side, "We do like to make sure our investors are plenty safe."

"And Ron told us all about how you got rid of that horrid woman."

"And we really hope you put our gift to good use."

"Oh, and let's not forget about your store discount," George now circled around him.

"Discount?" Harry some how managed to squeeze in before Fred and George went off again.

"Yes, of course discount," George continued.

"Did you really think that we'd let you get away with out one?"

"You get one discount for getting rid of Umbridge."

"As does everyone who helped on that little brigade."

"and one for being an employee," George finished.

"But I'm not an employee. I don't…" Harry was unable to finish before Fred went on.

"You're an investor."

"Which is just as good as an employee," George finished the sentence."

"Fred! George! Would you stop? We'd like to eat sometime this year!" Mrs. Weasley yelled at the boys.

"Oh, and hello Ron," Harry Finally managed to get out before seating himself between Ron and Ginny and across from Fred and George. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat on either end of the table.

There was all different kinds of food at the table. Corned beef, wild rice, candied yams, a beautiful salad, twice-baked potatoes, refried beans, asparagus, and stuffed artichokes. It was quite obvious that Mrs. Weasley had been working on the meal all morning and that there would be leftovers for dinner.

"The table looks lovely Ginny," Mr. Weasley started conversation.

"Thank you. It was nothing. It wouldn't look half as good with out the nice dishes," Ginny responded modestly.

"So how has business been going?" Harry asked as the yams were passed around.

"It's been booming!" Fred said.

"Yeah, it's been great help having Ron working up there with us," George directed the attention to Ron who had just taken a mouthful of rice.

"Umhum," he swallowed with one big gulp, "It's been really busy, but we've been having a good time working up there. You know, to kind of keep our minds off of things."

"You should have seen it on the Fourth of July," Ginny began, "I had to go up to help. Those Filibuster Fireworks were going like mad. Fred and George were in the back trying to make what they could with the materials we had, I was stocking them, Ron was running the registers, and Mum, Lee, Alicia, and Angelina- did we mention they were working there- but they were out getting more supplies for them from all around."

"That bad?" Harry asked.

"Bad? Hell no! It's been great! We are even looking into some premises in Hogsmede, you know, fore something new." Fred ecstatically said as he took a bite of corned beef.

"We were thinking about the Shrieking Shack. 'Cause, you know," George winked at Harry obviously implying that the students could sneak in if they could get through the Whomping Willow. Or then again, maybe so they could sneak in.

George finished chewing then went on again, "But if we can't get enough help for the other shop, we might just end up selling some products to Zonko's. Of course we would still have to worry about giving discounts on our products, but we can just put them on sale on Hogsmede weekends."

"We really don't want to have to do that but if we can't get help."

"What we really want though is Honeydukes. Their location is much more… strategic. Much easier to get to, you read?"

"But it would be shameful to get rid of such a great store. We'd be hated for miles upon miles."

"Unless we did get the Shrieking Shack. Then we could fix it up and maybe trade."

"Or do a bit of mining," Fred winked and then there was a knocking on the door.

"Ginny, would you get that?" Mr. Weasley pointed to the door with his fork.

"Yeah," Ginny got up out of her chair and began toward the door. When she was about half way there, Fred and George jumped out of their chairs and raced toward the door knocking over everything in their path- including Ginny. Fred got to the door and opened it up and George fell into him slamming the door followed by Ginny who when she got up joined in on the race.

Fred opened the door again and saw the occupant at the door and slammed it on his face.

"Fred! That's so impolite. Now who was that? Let them in," Mrs. Weasley told him.

"It's no one, Mum, somebody just left a burning bag of dung on our door step."

The door knocked again and Fred just locked the dead bolt. "FRED WEASLEY! You heard your mother!" Mr. Weasley yelled.

The person behind the door knocked again and George pushed Fred aside stubbornly and opened the door. There was a loud clattering from forks hitting the dishes as they were dropped as Percy Weasley walked into the kitchen followed by Fred, George, and Ginny who looked like they were part of the Italian Mafia.

"Mum… Dad… Harry, Ron, how have you been?" Percy asked nervously.

"Not that you really care or anything," George said. Fred probably would have but he was too upset to speak.

"I'm really sorry about last year, I just really thought…"

"You know Perc, sometimes I think that you think too much. Or maybe not enough, because anyone who thought anything about his family wouldn't do the things you did," Fred opened his mouth.

"Listen, I didn't mean…"

"But you did. Then you just waltz up to our door pretending like nothing happened." George went on.

"I'm not going to pretend that nothing happened because it did. And I wanted you all to know how sorry I am about all of it. I know I made a wrong turn but I just wanted to be successful," Percy tried to defend himself.

"Well congratulations. You did succeed, at tearing the family apart and making us miserable for months on end," Ron started in. "Did you ever even think of what was going on in Mum's head when you did that. You told Fred and George that they were a waste of time, and that Ginny and I were on the way to being just the same. Then you had the nerve to tell me not to hang around Harry."

"I…"

"You made Ginny cry!" Fred said. Percy turned around and looked at Ginny whose upset eyes were glazing with tears. Percy had nothing to say. He opened his mouth but no words came out. "I think you should go now," Fred hugged Ginny who was shedding silent tears in his arms.

Mrs. Weasley got up out of her chair and walked away up the stairs into her room. Mr. Weasley nodded at Percy and followed Mrs. Weasley up stairs.

Percy turned to Fred and began again, "Please listen I just…"

"I thought I told you to get out. You've done enough damage for one day I think."

"But I…"

"GO!" Fred passed Ginny over to George who brought her over to the table and pushed Percy out the door, "I said GET OUT!"

"I'm not done saying my piece!" Percy yelled back.

"You've said plenty."

"Now you liste…"

"Two hits, me hitting you and you hitting the floor."

"Fred, be reasonable."

Fred punched him in the face and Ginny screamed and covered her ears. "GET OUT!"

"No!"

He hit him again and shoved him out the door slamming the door behind himself and Percy.

"Ron, take Ginny to her room. I'm gonna go make sure Fred doesn't kill Percy," George handed Ginny to Ron.

"I should help shouldn't I?"

"Just take her." Ron took Ginny and slowly helped her up the stairs with Harry.

George ran outside and found Fred sitting on the ground with his head in between his knees and his hands on his head. "Did he leave?"

"Why did he come back? Why couldn't he just leave us be? We were getting along fine with out him and then he had to come and spoil our happiness." Fred had tears in his eyes.

"You know he'll be back eventually, right?"

"His main purpose on this earth since the beginning of time has been to make our lives miserable."

"It'll be fine. We should probably go inside and make sure that Ginny's alright though. Ron seemed kind of speechless too."

"Alright," Fred wiped the tears from his face and George helped him off the ground. "Oh, I almost forgot, we're due back to work in fifteen minutes."

"With all the commotion, I forgot. Ron should probably take the rest of the day off though. Sort his head out and probably catch up with Harry."

"Yeah, let's go."

Ginny laid in her bed crying. "I should be down there helping them. Not up here." Ron paced the room constantly looking out the window as if hoping they might walk in front of it. He turned around to Ginny, "It'll be okay, Ginny. Every think will come around and well, I don't really know but it'll be okay. I promise." He embraced his sister in a hug.

Harry in all the mean while was just staring into space. He had never realized how hard Fred and George had taken the lose of Percy. They never made a big deal of it. There was a lot more than family pride coming out of Fred. He had really been hurt.

"He's gone," Fred walked into the room followed by George.

"How's Ginny?" George said.

"Seems to be taking it hard, but I don't really know, she hasn't said a word," Ron answered.

"I'm sorry about that Ginny, but he can't just walk up to our door and ask for forgiveness. He's going to have to beg." Fred was very firm on this comment, "And I'll make sure he has to."

"Listen, Fred and I are going to go make sure Mum's okay then we are going to go back to work. Lee's expecting us or we would just close early." George went over to give Ginny a hug and left.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Fred hugged Ginny and nodded at Ron and Harry then left to follow George. "I'll see you later."

"He should drop dead," Ron said under his breath.

"Your right, he shouldn't have come here like that but he was trying to ask for forgiveness, you should cut him some slack even if he doesn't deserve it. You know, be the better person," Harry said.

"You know you guys, I just wish he would have stayed away. We would have been better. We were just starting to put his bullheadedness behind us and he came back and… and…" Ginny burst into tears and Harry held her in his arms. "He just shouldn't have come, he shouldn't have come, I hate him," she cried into his shoulder.

"Ginny don't hate him. He's still your flesh and blood. You should be glad you have him you know. He just made an error in judgment, but you still love him deep down, or you wouldn't be taking this so hard." Ginny held Harry tighter.

"You know, Harry, Perc…. WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!" Ron had just noticed Ginny's position in Harry's arms. Ginny jumped away from Harry and posed herself to look innocent. Ron didn't buy it. "Are you two?"

"Uh…" Ginny wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Ron, "I came to Harry, I swear we haven't been doing anything without telling you, in fact, it only just happened today," Ginny made an uncomfortable pause then added in just for the touch, "I'm not lying, I promise," and she gave him an innocent smile.

"Harry?"

"Um…" he ran his hand through his hair nervously, "yeah, I guess so. Sorry, Ron, I should have at least asked your permission but it just kinda happened."

"But she's my little sister!"

"Yeah, I kinda knew that but…"

"Ron, listen, I'm your little sister, but only by one year. I shouldn't have to have your approval for everything. Just sleep on it."

"Well, I… I just… I suppose if it had to be somebody it had to be Harry. But if you break her heart," Ron turned to Harry with his face starting to turn red, "I'll break every bone in your body then I'll feed you to the giant squid so he can play with you first."

"Cool down, Ron, I'm not gonna hurt her, I couldn't."

Ron gave Harry his crooked smile, which obviously meant that he approved. "Do ya wanna go practice Quidditch or something, you're the new captain aren't you?"

"Yea, sure let's go, but um… I was gonna ask you if we were going to um… headquarters or if you even knew any thing that you didn't write in the letters for secrecies sake?"

"Oh yea, we were going to go to Diagon Alley tomorrow and meet Hermoine. We're going to err... headquarters from there." They were trying to avoid actually saying the name of the place for it had been Sirius's home. "So um… shall we?"

"Yea, coming, Ginny?" Harry held out his hand to her.

"Yea," Ginny accepted his hand and they walked down the five flights of stairs and into the large field surrounding the Burrow that the Weasleys would normally play Quidditch on.

"I sure hope you got it," Ginny said as they approached the field. "After not playing Quidditch for almost a year, I bet you're a bit rusty."

"Yeah, you'll have to be polishing up on your skills because we've been practicing since school let out, well, between working hours." Ron had a big grin on his face.

"HA!" Harry imposed an incredibly fake laugh, "So how are we doing teams?"

"How about you two against me?" Ginny said, "I'll try to score on Ron, but nobody will be able to score on me because Harry will be looking for the snitch, and because I don't have a keeper. It won't be for the points, well, yea it will be," Ginny smiled, "first one to get 150 points wins." Ginny grabbed the quaffle and raced up to the goal posts and scored the first goal. "Ten- zero, my lead!"


	4. Attack on Diagon Alley

Chapter 4

Attack at the Leaky Cauldron

Harry didn't sleep much that night due to the night terrors. Every time he closed his eyes, he would find himself in the same place, a room full of devices for torture, and him strapped to one of them. The room was some very tight competition for the Tower of London.

When Ron woke up, he and Harry walked down into the kitchen for some of the warm breakfast they had been able to smell since the third landing.

"Good morning, Harry," Ginny said from across the table filled with eggs, bacon, ham, and toast.

"Morning."

"Don't say good morning to me or anything, Ginny, I'm only your brother," Ron said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I'm sorry, Ron, good morning."

"Don't say it because you feel pressured. You might as well not say it as all if you don't really mean it."

"I do mean it though!" Ginny said apparently not hearing Ron's sarcasm, "I really do mean fo you to have a good morning."

Ron bursted into laughter, as did everyone else, including Mrs. Weasley who had over heard the conversation.

"So you all are coming to Diagon Alley yet aren't you?" Fred inquired.

"Yeah, Harry has yet to see our premises,'' said George.

"Yes, we'll be leaving shortly after breakfast," Mrs. Weasley responded sweetly, "by the way, how is your breakfast?"

"Delicious."

"It's great."

"Most excellent."

A rumble of voices came up from the table all at once. "That's good because we probably won't be eating again until we get home. You know how tight money's been lately," Mrs. Weasley said halfheartedly, "Oh, and Arthur, your lunch is in the fridge."

"Thanks, Molly, I'd best be going," Mr. Weasley got up from the table and said good-bye to each of his children individually, Harry included. "I'll see you all later," he vanished with a loud crack and Mrs. Weasley's clock moved Mr. Weasley from home to work.

"We better be going, too, it's just about time to open," George said bored, "catch ya' later."

"See ya!"

"Well, let's get this place cleaned up so we can leave. If we work together, we'll get it done in a jiffy," Mrs. Weasley propped herself up and began clearing the table of dishes, everyone else followed her lead.

Before he knew it, Harry was being thrown out of a fireplace in the Weasley's place at Diagon Alley. The store was so brightly coloured that it looked as though it had been beaten by the queer stick. The walls were covered with displays of all of the Weasley's products and in the corner were all kinds of candy dispensers filled with interesting flavors of Bertie Botts, Blood suckers, and other interesting things that you might find on the unused side of Honeydukes, not to mention ton-tongue taffy. In the middle of the room, there was a portable swamp with red ropes around it that had a small gap for entry. Then Harry noticed that there were splashes of green and brown on the walls and what looked like hand and foot prints on the ceiling.

"So what do ya think Harry:" Ron came out of the fireplace after Ginny, "It's not much, but people love it."

"It's great!"

"It usually picks up within the next hour," George came from the back with a box of nosebleed nougats. "So is our investor pleased?" He put them on the shelf.

"Yeah, it's fabulous, but can I ask about the Foot prints on the ceiling?"

"See that's just the thing," Fred and Angelina walked in the room rather sloppily, "you can ask."

"In order to encourage the little pranksters out there, we have swamp fights in here. So this one day, some half blooded werewolf raised kid comes in here and was just bouncing off the ceiling, literally. We thought it was pretty cool, so we stopped taking the goo off the walls after that." George looked up at the ceiling proudly.

"We should go find Hermoine," said Ron, "she should be here by now and Mum said that we should try to get our shopping done today so we don't have to worry about it. Well, at least most of it."

Ron, Harry, and Ginny had barely walked out of the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes when they bumped into Hermoine. "Hermoine!" Ginny unwrapped herself from Harry's arm to give Hermoine a hug that nearly made her fall to the ground. "It's been too long. You really should write more."

"Well you know I've been in a muggle hotel in Italy for most of the summer and too many owls are suspicious. Ron are you okay?" Hermoine looked at Ron questionably.

Ron who had been gawking at Hermoine for the past two minutes suddenly snapped back into reality, "Yeah, what? Oh, sorry, I just, wow, Hermoine, you look different." Italy had done Hermoine good. The sun brought out her natural skin tones and highlights making her hair a lovely shade of light brown. She went to the fashion capital of the world and apparently learned a thing or two, and she had definitely filled out and blossomed beautifully. Her self-esteem was booted up making her smile as beautiful as ever.

"Thanks," she said blushing.

"He's right, you look great," Harry came up to Hermoine gibing her a hug.

"well if that's not the cutest thing I've ever seen," a mock mama voice came from behind Hermoine, "Potter and the mudblood, jealous Weasel?" Draco Malfoy stood there with the usual smirk smacked across his face, only this time it was different. Malfoy seemed to have filled out a lot that summer, too. He was no longer that scrawny, slimy haired future death eater, rich man. To sum it up, he was a hot bad boy, and instead of chewing him out while Ron's face turned five different shades of red Hermoine just looked at him, put a smirk on her face and said, "Harry and me aren't going out, I'm seeing no one," very calmly. Ron looked at Hermoine bewildered. She snapped out of her spell and made sure to add it, "as if my personal life was any of your business!"

"I'll bud into anyone's personal life whom I wish," Malfoy retorted.

"Hey, ferret face," Ginny was getting annoyed, "why don't you just leave us be, unless Hermoine's life story is that important to you, then sit down."

"Weaselette's gonna stand up for the mudblood now?"

"Yeah, cause that's what friends do, oh, but you wouldn't know that because you don't have any real friends!"

"I'm his friend," a girl who stood so silent and still under her white cloak that she was invisible to them all until now spoke.

"And who the hell are you? Some death eater's daughter?" Ginny went on.

"A what?" the girl said.

"You're friends with Malfoy?" Harry said in confusion.

"Yes."

"Draco Malfoy?"

"Yes."

"A muggleborn is friends with Draco Malfoy?" Harry continued interrogating.

"A what?"

"Unbelievable," Ron joined the interrogation, "What, do you have to kill her or something?"

"Ron!" Hermoine said.

"Hey, why don't you all just leave her alone, let's go." Malfoy took the girl by the arm and walked off with her.

"So what do you think he has planned for her?" Harry said after they left.

"I don't know, but it's something," Hermoine was still watching Malfoy in the distance, "Draco Malfoy does not just befriend muggleborns, he despises them. I think that his father is forcing him to be her friend."

"Yeah, she knows something, or has some special power, I can feel it," everyone looked at Harry and an awkward silence fell. "So did any one see who it was?"

"No, she didn't say her name. In fact, I didn't even see her face. Do you think it's someone from school?"

"I don't know, could be, but we should go to Gringotts quick, I have to get my money exchanged," Hermoine went searching through her pockets.

Harry pulled his pockets inside out and when nothing came out but a few knuts he said, "me, too."

Half an hour had passed when Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and Ginny exited Gringotts.

"What's happened?" Hermoine opened her mouth in complete shock. Everyone else had the look of shock on their faces apparently all to stunned to speak. Down at the end of the alley where there should have stood a brick wall was a smoldering hole in the ground and a big dark mark floating above it.

The normally bustling Diagon Alley was now silent as stone and the normally merry faces were covered in dirt and tears.

There was a sudden scream coming from a woman outside of the ice cream parlor who was being held back by two men. The parlor had burst into flames. "NO, MY BABY!" The woman was screaming with every ounce of energy she had. She screamed as though she was being torn from the inside out.

There was another large explosion just as a ragid man ran out of the falling building carrying a small boy who couldn't have been older than five.

The woman grasped her child and began crying tears of joy. Ginny fell into Harry's arms out of relief just as Mrs. Weasley ran up to them. "I've been so worried about you!" She squeezed all of them tightly, "We have to leave now, quick!" She led them off towards the Weasley's and they flooed to Grimwald place.


	5. Return to Grimwald Place

Chapter 5

Return to Grimwald Place

When they got to Grimwald Place, Mrs. Weasley told them to go up to their rooms and stay there and that Fred and George would bring their bags. Then she ran out the door.

"I can't believe it," Hermoine murmured as she slowly started up the stairs, "who could be so heartless?"

"Malfoy." Everyone looked at Harry, "Why else would he have been so jumpy around us. If he didn't do it he at least knew about it."

"Actually, Harry," Ginny finally spoke, "I don't think that's why he was jumpy, Usually when he knows about things like that he's really rude…more so than usual."

"Gin's right, Harry, he's usually really rude when he knows the tables are going to turn for his better," said Hermoine.

"Well who ever it was, it was a death eater."

Ron turned around as he was opening up the door, "You don't think it was that girl, do you?"

"No," Hermoine said, "but come to think of it, I think that that was the reason why Malfoy was so jumpy. He wanted to be rude to the girl to save his reputation, but he couldn't because she had just called him her friend. And then we found out that she's a muggle born on top of it. I think that we hit his soft spot," Hermoine plopped down on the bed Ron was currently laying on and continued, "Do you think his father knows about her? What if she was staying at the Leaky Cauldron?"

"And his dad found out, and didn't like the idea of having his son be friends with a muggle born, so he decided to teach his son a "lesson" and dispose of her," Harry went on speaking everyone's thoughts aloud.

"Or maybe you guys should just stop guessing cause you're way off track." Fred and George walked into the room with four levitating trunks behind them.

"Do you know what happened?" Ron asked as they threw down the trunks at the foot of the bed.

"More than you apparently," said Fred.

George sat down by Harry "Yeah, don't know who you're talking about but they were after Tom."

"Then why did they blow up the ice cream parlor," stated Ginny.

"Just for the fun I suppose, you know, on their way out," said Fred, "They've been after Tom for month's now, don't really know why, probably because the Leaky Cauldron is the barrier. Now there is no barrier for the most popular wizarding shopping place and muggles can just come in any time."

"But word around the extendable ears has it that Tom knows something. I mean, I guess he's missing and they didn't find a body," George broke off into thought, "then again he could be hiding."

"None-the-less," Fred interrupted, "it doesn't matter because he doesn't have a place to go back to. The Leaky Cauldron was his home and now it's destroyed. Not to mention after what's happened-and the way rumors spread- he won't have much for business anymore. We'll be having enough problems ourselves with people being too spooked, and we didn't even get hit."

"Harry?" Ginny looked at Harry who had glazed over eyes and seemed to be staring at some small particles floating about in the air. "Are you okay?"

"Something's upstairs," is all he said when he got up and walked out the door.

It felt like he had been walking forever before he had finally reached the door from which the noise was coming. Harry pressed his ear up to the door to make sure.

Harry turned the knob and pushed the door open only to find that behind the door was Sirius' bedroom filled to the top with reminders of him and his sudden death, down to the very last dirty sock lying on the floor. The room wasn't much to look at, it wasn't even decorative, but it was Sirius'. It only consisted of a small bed with tattered sheets, rows of old books and torn up newspapers, a table with a broken chair and shattered teacup, a few old photographs, a closet and a chest. Everything in the room reminded Harry of Sirius and the thoughts that were running madly through his head could do nothing but bring him to tears. Not a thing could ruin it, nothing but the small urchin lingering in the corner by the trunk containing his former master's belongings.

Before he could tell what he was doing, Harry found himself grasping Kreacher by the throat and yelling words that not even he could understand. He was hitting Kreacher as hard as he could when he began to hear a faint screaming from behind him and a tugging on his shirt.

"Harry, no! He didn't know any better. Stop, you

re going to kill him!" Hermoine was pleading to him as Ginny tried to pull him off.

"Harry, this isn't the way to solve this. Killing him won't make Sirius come back!" Ginny's pulling became unnecessary as Harry stopped and froze. "This isn't the way to handle this. If you kill him it's not going to make you feel better. Let Dumbledore handle this."

"But he killed Sirius," Harry broke into tears and the world seemed to fade away as Ginny held him in her arms.

"What do you want us to do with him?" Fred picked up the bloody, unconscious house elf off the floor, "Is he even still alive?"

"Yes," Hermoine checked his pulse, "just beat up. I don't know what to do with him, but I suppose that we'll have to keep an especially close eye on him regardless…at least until someone from the order shows up to deal with him. You best take him downstairs and out of sight. Just make sure one of you stays there with him, we don't want him regaining consciousness then running away."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that cause their back," Ron walked over to the staircase to hear a large amount of chaos down the stairs.

"Come on…let's just get rid of this thing…it's disgusting and I know disgusting…that's…" Fred was interrupted by an earsplitting scream from down the stairs.

"Get out of my house you filthy blood traders, you are not welcome in the house of Black!" In the brief pauses between Mrs. Blacks insults, you could hear a voice yelling, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," The screaming ceased and the previous chaos was extinct.

"I guess that means Tonks is here and that they're in the dinning room having a meeting. Shall we?" George held out his hand and showed everybody the extendible ears.

"We shall," and Fred pulled a pair out of his pocked. "You coming?" He looked over to Harry and Ginny.

"Yeah, we'll be right down," Ginny kissed Harry on the forehead and helped him to his feet, then they followed everyone else down the stairs.

Fred fed the line of the extendable ear slowly down the balcony until it reached just above the door of the dining room. There were so many conversations going on within the room that not a single word was distinguishable until there was a, "QUIET!" So loud that the extendable ears were not needed to hear it. Then it all went quiet except for the one voice.

"First off, as far as our most recent attack goes, none of the death eaters were caught and we are pretty sure that they killed Tom. Other than Tom, there are two missing people reported since the attack who are possibly dead John Turner and his eight year old daughter Savannah," Hermoine covered her mouth and gasped. Ginny had a similar reaction and by the sound of it so did Mrs. Weasley. "We have found a weapon that we think is powerful enough to defeat the Dark Lord, but it is expected that Voldemort has also discovered it or at least part of it meaning that we must act quickly. I only have to hope that I interfered in time but there have been strange interactions between the Malfoy establishment and a…the uh…girl recently which is suspicious due to her muggle relations…"

"He's talking about that girl we say Malfoy with today," Ron pulled away from the extendable ear, "The muggle born one."

"I knew that was suspicious," Hermoine put on one of her faces where she had just discovered something, "She knos about the weapon, or maybe she is the weapon…"

"SHHHH!" Hermoine dropped her face and went back to listening.

"And…" the voice sounded frustrated, "for those of you who haven't been to the last six meetings…we've decided to execute Kreacher because he now will be working for the Malfoy house hold due to more recent events and he knos too much."

Hermoine let out a gasp, "How can they do that, he didn't know any bet…oops!" She looked at Harry's face and knew at once that she was wrong, "I'm sorry Harry, I mean, he certainly deserves it after what he did, but surly you don't think that he actually knew what he was doing. He was raised that way, he was only following orders, and I, oh." She looked at the disappointment on everyone's face.

Ron looked at her spitefully and said, "Why don't you just do us all a favor and go read a book."

"Harry?" She was waiting for Harry to say, 'no, that's okay, I understand,' but it never came. Tears swelled up in her eyes as she walked up the stairs and out of sight.

"She didn't mean it in a cruel way, she was just thinking of how unfair house elves are treated," Ginny frowned at the cruel behavior towards their friend then followed her up the stairs.

The dining room doors opened up just as Fred and George had pulled up the extendable ears.

"Do you think I was a bit hard on Hermoine?" Ron looked ashamed of himself.

"Yeah, I think we both were," Harry looked at him.

"I don't know, but we should take that thing downstairs." George pointed at Kreacher who was carelessly thrown into the corner, "He's starting to stink."

When Harry and Ron went to apologize to Hermoine, they found her lying on her bed crying into her pillow with Ginny by her side.

Ron walked up to her and said rudely, "Hey, Ginny, do ya mind?" She rolled her yes and walked out the door. "Hermoine, please don't cry, I didn't mean to yell at you. I guess you just hit a nerve, you know talking about Sirius and all."

"Yeah, me too, I just have been having a hard time copping with that and I understand what you meant about Kreacher but still, he can't be trusted. I'm really sorry."

Hermoine sat up from her pillow and looked at Harry with her red teary eyes. Ron looked at her as though he was about to cry, too. "Please forgive us."

She looked at Ron and then back to Harry, "I know I'm really sorry, too. I know what has to be done, and loosing Sirius has been hard for me too. I don't know what I was thinking when I said that, but I'm really sorry."

"Tell ya what, we'll forgive you if you promise to forgive us."

"Of course!" Hermoine gave both Harry and Ron a big hug.

When Ron received his hug he said, "So we're friends again right?"

"Best of!" Hermoine gave him an extra hug, "We should go help with dinner, I'm starved." She jumped out of bed, wiped the tears from her face and straightened her jeans, "Come on."

"Well, she's back to bossing us around." Harry just shrugged his shoulders and followed Hermoine down to the kitchen.

When they arrived in the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley was yelling at Fred and George for Kreacher's mangled body and by the looks of it, they had completely tuned her out because they were in the corner having their own conversation

"I just don't understand how you could do that to a creature that's not even half your size. Ginny are you almost through setting the table? Dinner's about done. George, could you take the stew and Fred, get some butter beers out of the fridge would you. Fred? George? Where are you? Get in here the both of you and help out. I asked you to put the stew and the butter beer on the table. Oh, there you are!" Mrs. Weasley spotted Harry, Ron and Hermoine enter the kitchen, "Are you alright? We were in such a rush earlier that I didn't get to make sure you were okay. Are you?"

"We're fine, mum. But is dinner done yet?" Ron pushed away his mother from his cheeks.

"Oh, yes, just go ahead and sit down."

"Is dad coming?"

"No, he's working late again. With that campaign going on and today's attack, we'll be lucky if he ever comes home for dinner." Mrs. Weasley went to take a bite of stew when the bowl got up and ran away from her. The main bowl in the center of the table began to spin violently and Fred ran over to turn on the record player. All of the dishes on the table began to bounce and dance along with the beat of the music. Spinning and twirling, it was like turning an entire rave into dishes. They seemed to just flow with the music.

"Fred! George! Stop!" Mrs. Weasley got dumped from her chair and it began tap dancing. Ron looked as though he was about to be sick because his chair was spinning like a ballerina and Ginny's had thrown her across the room. In all the mean while, Fred and George stood in the corner laughing and having a riot.

"Don't worry Mother, they'll stop after a song or two:

Harry walked up to bed slightly nauseous that night from all the twirling his chair had done. He went to his trunk to get his pajamas and a green and gold box rolled out of a pair of socks.

He set his mother's music box next to himself on the night stand, laid sown with the parchment in his hands, and began reading along with the music…

_When I'm on my own_

_Far away from home,_

_Will you keep me in your prayers,_

_When you're alone…_

The words became hazed as Harry drifted off to sleep from the sound of the familiar lullaby.

"Harry, please just tell him. It hurts!" There was a girl with beautiful red hair screaming in agony. "Please, Harry, it hurts…Ahhhh! Please!" She was crying because she was being tortured. There was blood everywhere.

"tell me the prophecy, Potter," a man with red slits for eyes hissed at Harry.

"Don't you touch her!"

"Oh but I think she likes it. She will make such a lovely toy. Love can be so hard to find, especially when you need an heir," a devilish smirk grew across his face.

"No! You can't!"

"Please, Harry, don't do this to me…Ahhhh…._ PLEASE_!"

"No! No! NO! It's just a dream! You can't hurt her!"

"Oh, but how easily dreams can become a reality!"

"No!"

"Please, Harry!"

"No! This isn't real! No! No!" Harry woke up in a cold sweat 'No, it was a dream!' He jumped out of bed and snuck up to the room where Ginny slept. She was safe and sound in her bed. He went and laid down next to her but didn't sleep for fear of what would come. But what if he did plan on making Harry's dreams become real?


End file.
